


Four Seasons, How Many Loves?!

by tipper_gore_vidal



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Averted Accidental Voyeurism, Bisexual Zuko (Avatar), Blow Jobs, Everyone's over 18, F/M, Hand Jobs, M/M, Multi, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Outdoor Sex, Post-Canon, Riding, Woman on Top, i want that firelord Obliterated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:06:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27426910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tipper_gore_vidal/pseuds/tipper_gore_vidal
Summary: Li and Lo inform Zuko of a Firelord tradition he needs to complete, much to his dismay.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar)/Everyone, mentioned Sokka/Suki
Comments: 22
Kudos: 53





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Okay with: translations and podifcs. Please just ask my permission first, and link me when you're done!
> 
> Not okay with: having my fic used in articles about fans or fandom.

Zuko had laughed at Mai's sardonic congratulations when he outlasted Firelord Taizen, who’d choked on a fishbone six months in. He paced the palace all night like a feral pygmy-puma when one of his ministers noted he'd been on the throne for longer than his father, unable to shake the assassination paranoia. Zuko was young, sure, but he had survived. Was surviving. He tried his hardest to be mature. To be dignified. This meeting still made him want to crawl in a hole.

"We are here to discuss your vital essence, your yang," Li and Lo said simultaneously. Not for the first time, Zuko wondered if they practiced it.

Li and Lo exchanged a smirking sidelong glance like they were remembering a private joke, probably at his expense. Zuko’s frown deepened.

Sparks gathered at the back of his mouth, and it took more self-control than he expected not to tell them his yang was none of their business. He took three deep breaths before it felt safe to reply.

"Why’s that?" Zuko asked.

"The great sage Hua says yang needs to be conserved for energy," Lo, or Li, or whoever said. He really wished he remembered Uncle's trick to tell them apart. "You do the... opposite."

"How do you know I'm, uh, yang-ing too much?" Zuko tried to keep perspective. Embarrassing though it was, it wasn't a crisis. All he needed to do was find out who was gossiping about what went on in his bedroom.

"Many men your age do," they said with the same sly intonation. Infuriating! He ignored the part of his mind shouting that they were probably writing letters to Azula, that she put them up to this to mess with him.

"The firelord traditionally follows the sage Hua’s advice to get the full benefits of withholding one’s yang." Zuko stayed silent. He only learned about Hua’s many health manuals from his tutors in passing. Abstractly, he knew one of them was about sex, but never thought to read it.

"To follow Hua's advice, you have to bring yourself to the very knife's edge of sharing your yang with whoever you choose to partner with, only to refrain from doing so for ten..." They seemed to decide they couldn't avoid the word "ejaculations."

Heat flooded his face. “That’s…” He struggled to find language appropriate for the throne room.

“Preposterous,” he finally settled on. Lo and Li now seemed determined to avoid each other’s gaze. Spots of pink appeared high on their cheeks and the lines around their eyes deepened merrily.

"According to Hua, unreleased yang nourishes one’s brain, Firelord Zuko. After one time, your vital essence will grow stronger, and after three your hearing and eyesight will improve."

He didn't keep the fire lit at all times, as his father did, but he almost wished he did so it would hide the face he was pulling.

"After five, your diseases will be cured,” they continued.

“I don’t--what diseases do you think I have!?” he couldn’t help but interrupt.

“And after all ten, you will live as long as Avatar Kyoshi," they finished, as though they didn’t hear him.

“I _know_ that isn't true!"

"All Firelords and many of the crown heirs since sage Hua’s time have completed this task," they said. “Then, they perform a ritual with the Fire Sages afterward.” As they described the ritual's intricacies, Zuko figured it’d probably be more trouble than it was worth not to do it; he slumped forward on the throne.

Whichever one of them was seated on the left held up a book Zuko hadn’t noticed before. The cover was yellow and mottled with age, but had several new-looking sheets of paper sticking out of it. “These are sage Hua’s collected writings with annotations, we hope you will peruse them.”

“Please leave it with the guard when you go,” Zuko said, sounding defeated even to his own ears. He still felt a twinge of discomfort giving Li and Lo, who used to tell him to stop running down the halls and to not gobble his food like a wild animal, a direct order.

If either of them were offended, they didn’t show it. “As you wish, Firelord Zuko,” Li--Lo--whoever was holding the book said. Satisfied, they rose from their chairs.

They stopped in front of the door.

"You received this news in much better temper than your grandfather," whoever was on the right told Zuko.

He thought for a second before responding. "I strive to do everything with a better temper than he does, even if I sometimes fail."

"Which we appreciate," they said, unusually magnanimous. "As we were honored to inform you of the task ahead, we were honored to have helped him... complete his," Li and Lo said with identical smiles. They gave a final, obsequiously low bow, and left. He could hear their wheezing laughter on the other side of the door. His grandfather… them… hmm, nope. Didn't like that thought!

Zuko was still lost contemplating the unpleasant revelation when a servant peeked in the room. “Are you ready for lunch, your Highness?” she asked.

"I'm not hungry, thank you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't found a cheap English translation, but what little I read about Tung-Hsuan's Art of the Bedchamber was enough to inspire this fic.
> 
> Concrit is welcome, ship hate is not. No pairing requests, please; this fic is fully planned out.


	2. Mai

_This Hua guy is **weird**_ , Zuko thought, wincing as his clumsy fingers puckered yet another delicate page, _but at least he isn't boring_. Once he got past millennia-old advice on preventing things (babies, coming too soon, burnt sheets), there were pages of very. Um, unrealistic. Illustrations that made a lot more sense when he read that Hua belonged Gan Jin monkshood's celibate sect. He sighed, and kicked the blanket away with more force than strictly necessary. The energy coursing through him made him regret not training more today.

Zuko leapt into a firebending stance before he consciously heard the scrape of the window being pried open.

“It’s so _muggy_ out,” came a familiar voice. He dropped his stance immediately, but it took longer for his heart to stop pounding. 

“Mai!” Her cheek did feel clammy under his lips. Zuko held her close, suddenly glad he was wearing the sleep pants she gave him last year. 

Fondness settled in Zuko's chest as he and Mai traded complaints. Her traveling robe hit the vanity he left empty for her with its usual disproportionately heavy thunk. The large bag she brought was distended with papers. Excellent, it was probably updates on the New Ozai society. Mai caught him looking, and shot him a scowl that meant she'd rather debrief him later.

"--and do people even do this? See? Read it!" Zuko shoved the book under her nose. Her expression turned from quizzical to surprised as she took the book from him.

"The Fountain of Yin," Mai slowly read the illustration's title aloud. Zuko didn't ask before unpinning her buns, smiling when she leaned back into him. Mai made a small, sweet sound when he finger-combed the loose strands.

A luridly-drawn woman took up most of the page naked from the waist down. Zuko didn't know a lot about art, but it looked oddly-proportioned to him; her vulva seemed to take up more space on her body than on any woman he had seen naked. The man looked like an afterthought by comparison. His unnaturally long tongue looked like a lizard's, jutting out to lick her cunt. The artist drew her leaking copiously, and the man held a baiju glass to the base of her, half-full of her fluids. 

Mai's nose crinkled. "Hmm," was all she said, but Zuko recognized that 'hmm'. It wasn't a good one. 

"The edition Li and Lo gave me was altered to hide that Hua was from the Earth Kingdom," he said quickly. "The papers are the planned restoration from Education Minister Huang's revisions."

"Under Sozin or Azulon?" she asked. He scooted closer to her, looking in mute request before putting an arm around her. The sweat had dried, leaving her skin cool in the spring night air. Mai cuddled closer to him. Her hair felt silky and ticklish as always against his bare chest and shoulder. It awakened the nerves there, and a slow, pleasant arousal started to stir in Zuko.

Even as it made him sad they spent so much time apart, Zuko enjoyed cataloguing the infinitesimal differences whenever Mai came back to him. Going to school with Azula must've been a traumatic experience for anyone, and it made Zuko feel good to know she was comfortable being curious with him. Their relationship was in a strange place of ambiguity, and when Mai visited, Zuko never knew what they were going to do: relitigate old fights, or knock each other in the fountain and laugh like children. The only constant was that it still lit Zuko up inside whenever she decided to crash his diplomatic functions, hissing gossip in his ear until he shook with suppressed laughter before suggesting that they sneak off. 

"That's pretty weird," she admitted. She lounged on the made side of his bed. 

The crimson pillowcase framing her white skin made Zuko remember her filmy summer _sinh_ forming a tent over his head as she straddled him. Mai'd had to lower himself to his mouth because her knives pinned his clothes to the couch like a butterfly's wings. He had felt deliciously trapped, used for her pleasure until she was satisfied and turned her attention to him. Abruptly, Zuko realized he was tracing a finger up and down her arm.

She idly flipped a few pages.

"That one looks interesting," she said, running a finger over one of the less ambitious positions.

He hummed in agreement before dropping a kiss on her bare shoulder.

"I like interesting," Zuko said stupidly before tilting her face up to his. They kissed for a long moment, its familiarity comforting before becoming something more. With his lips and tongue, Zuko tried to tell Mai just how much he missed her. Mai sighed into the kiss and pressed her face into his palm like a friendly cat. The book lay forgotten. 

It happened quickly after that. She always knew how to wind him up, knew that her lips on the tender spot where jaw met neck made him hot and desperate for her in the blink of an eye. Mai wound her fingers in his hair when he worried her nipple between his teeth and cried out when he slid two fingers in. Hot and so slick around his fingers, it made his cock throb with the phantom memory of all the times he pushed into her. She arched into Zuko when she came, and he moaned when his already-hard cock brushed against her smooth-skinned thigh. 

Zuko was about to guide her hand down the front of his pants, unsure of whether he'd last long enough for more, when Mai panted “Let me ride you.”

"Fuck yes," Zuko said around his fingers, sucking the taste of her off them. Her lips lingered on his scarred cheek.

He hurried to lie back on the bed. Zuko bit his lip raw as Mai took her time teasing him, letting the leaking head of his cock brush against her cunt again and again until he was shaking and the head of his cock steadily leaked beads of precome. She kept a straight face, but Zuko wasn't fooled; she was biting the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. His mouth opened in a silent moan as she finally bore down on him. Mai rode him slowly, grinding in little circular motions in a rhythm that she knew teased him.

Zuko couldn't control his begging. "Mai, Mai, please faster, Mai--" 

And damn her, she slowed down even further.

"Mai," Zuko pleaded. He was so close. He pulled her further down and thrusted up at the same time. She stilled his hips with one hand.

She wouldn't let him thrust up into her. One of her hands spread against his chest, holding him down as she went just a little faster. Zuko did his best to stay still for her, but he couldn't help but give one selfish thrust as he felt her walls contract around him, and she made the smallest of noises. Her hips stuttered to a stop as she came again. Zuko gazed hungrily at the slight flush of her normally pale cheeks, the sheen of sweat between her breasts, her quivering thighs. Zuko petted her soft pubic hair as she came down.

"Mai, let me come," he said softly.

Her faint, mischievous smile make his cock twitch inside of her. "I thought you weren't allowed," she said mildly.

"I can start after this," he tried to reason with her. Her smile widened, and a well-groomed eyebrow lifted.

"Please, Mai, I need--," Zuko whined again. He was desperate and sensitive and hot all over.

She pulled off his cock with a positively obscene noise. He was too desperate to be embarrassed by the noise he made, and she shuddered like she was getting turned on again. Zuko was about to ask if she wanted him to go down on her, but she pointedly yawned.

"I'll stay the night, but I have to leave by noon tomorrow." Mai pulled the covers up and cuddled next to him. 

"Turn over," she told him, and he gratefully embraced her. He twitched when the head of his cock brushed against her.

"The other way," she corrected. Her usually-cold hands were warm as she flipped him over.

Her bare breasts pressed against his back. "Don't want you rubbing off against me," she purred in his ear. 

He shivered as a sharp blood-red nail circled his nipple.

"Mai, please," Zuko said one last time, but there was no seriousness behind it. He knew she wouldn't budge.

"I'll be gone a while. Promise you'll have fun without me?" she said.

"I will, thank you," said Zuko, recognizing the permission for what it was.

It was torture to have her there, but still be aching with want. Zuko fell asleep far after her breathing grew deep and even.


	3. Sokka

The tree at the pond's edge was so gnarled that its drooping branches hung around Sokka and Zuko like a fragrant green half-cocoon. After the clamor of their swords, the courtyard seemed oddly quiet. Zuko stretched, groaning slightly at the pleasure-pain feeling in his muscles, tired from sparring. He savored getting to sit next to Sokka without a purpose to it, no formal diplomatic etiquette, or cranky ministers, or 'Sorry my country's nationalists keep attacking your embassy, we're working on it, I promise,' the morning meeting's topic. 

They talked of nothing in particular, bouncing between cracking jokes (or trying, in Zuko's case) and arguing over what to have for dinner. Zuko felt so pleasant that his head seemed empty, mouth moving without its help. Sokka's squint at the early-evening sunlight shining through the leaves turned abruptly to wide-eyed surprise, and it took Zuko a second to remember what he'd said to merit that response. 

"That sounds..." Sokka's horror was immensely gratifying. He squeezed his own thigh like he was trying not to grab dick in sympathy. 

"Yeah, I'm starting to climb the walls," he admitted. Zuko looked out at the water. "Been training a lot."

"Yeah, I can tell," Sokka said. "Not that you were in bad shape before! You just, uh."

"Thanks. Uh, you too," Zuko said. Sokka wasn't the gawky kid he fought against anymore; he hadn't been for some time. Last time Zuko went to the Southern Water Tribe, he was surprised to see that Sokka was taller and broader than his father, his calves straining against his close-fitting boots.

Zuko suddenly couldn't look directly at him. He focused instead on Sokka's hand, broad and long-fingered, with a little dirt under the nails. Sokka caught him looking and raised a conspiratorial eyebrow. Zuko's face went hot under the new scrutiny. Self-consciously, Zuko leaned back on his elbows, feeling the fabric strain around his shoulders and upper arms. Sokka swallowed heavily. 

"Suki and I have an agreement about... you know, as long as we tell each other after." He tossed it off casually, but Zuko wasn't fooled.

"Mai and I have the same thing," he said.

Zuko knew he wasn't the best with people, but that look in Sokka's eyes was unmistakable: he was making a _plan_. 

Sokka leaned over and licked the sweat off his neck, which was kind of weird, but also sent a shivery bolt of want down his spine. Zuko couldn't control the small noise he made. He turned his head to kiss Sokka properly, but Sokka wasn't finished. He pressed light kisses up the corner of Zuko’s jaw and cheek, and back down when confronted with his scarred ear.

"It doesn't hurt, but there's not a lot of feeling there," Zuko said. Sokka's hum of acknowledgement tickled enough for Zuko to reflexively shy away from it, but Sokka's hand was suddenly on his shoulder, holding him in place. The air left Zuko's lungs entirely when Sokka opened his mouth a little and sucked. 

"Don't leave a mark," he warned, but there was no authority in his voice. Sokka didn't reply, just sort of huffed and pulled himself off the ground. His smirking lips hovered above Zuko's in a mute question. Zuko closed the final distance, feeling triumphant as he wiped the smile off Sokka's face.

Sokka returned his kiss so enthusiastically, he knocked Zuko's head into the tree trunk. His moan vibrated against Zuko's lips when Zuko ungently pulled the tie from his wolftail. It felt... really nice, less awkward than Zuko expected from kissing someone for the first time. It felt like an extension of their sparring: a little clumsy and a lot of fun, with no pretense of being more than that.

By the time they pulled apart for air, the sun had dipped lower in the sky. Sokka jerked above him when Zuko palmed his clothed cock, already half-hard by the feel of it.

"Lemme do that to you, too," he said breathily. _Fuck yes_ , Zuko thought, but a strangled whine was all that came out.

Sokka rolled back over, brushing dirt off his forearms before glancing around the courtyard. After a brief, hissed debate that ended with them agreeing the guards were probably far away by now, they tugged each other's clothes only barely out of the way. Sokka's blood-dark cock stood out temptingly against his light-blue shirt so Zuko grabbed it. Sokka immediately reciprocated. The angle as they stroked each other was awkward, but Zuko was so keyed-up it didn't matter to him, and by the look on Sokka's face, it didn't to him either. Sokka winced, then snickered at a particularly harsh bump of their wrists. His laughter only stopped when Zuko rubbed his thumb in a circle around the head. Then, Zuko did his best to make Sokka squirm and swear under his hands. His rhythm grew erratic before stopping, but Zuko didn't mind; he was embarrassingly close to coming.

He heard the footsteps a second before Sokka did. Apparently he misestimated. He froze, finger at his lips. Sokka looked almost pained, then wide-eyed as he heard them drawing closer. He released Zuko's cock like he'd been burned, and _oh shit, had he?_ Zuko thought for a split second before mentally shaking himself.

"Guards," Zuko mouthed, mostly for Sokka's benefit. He heard the light footsteps of a Kyoshi Warrior, and her Fire Nation trainee. Zuko was hoping to phase in Fire Nation guards both to show support for his people, and allow the Kyoshi Warriors to return home.

Sokka covered both of them with the hems of their respective tunics. The two sets of footsteps drew dangerously close. Somehow, Zuko's pounding heart migrated into both his throat and his cock. He looked down, and saw Sokka didn't soften with fear; his thin tunic had the tiniest wet spot where he was leaking. Looking at it made his mouth dry.

Sokka dared a look around the tree. "Coast's clear."

"We don't have a lot of time," Zuko hissed in case they were still in earshot.

For once, Zuko wanted to be the one with a surprise. Sokka's teeth bit into his lower lip when Zuko lifted the tunic off his cock. He barely took the time to look at its slick swollen head before bending almost double to suck it into his mouth. Sokka yelped, and only Zuko's hand kept him from thrusting up. It was hard to glare with a cock in your mouth, he noticed.

"S-sorry," he said shakily, patting Zuko's head. He was a little worried it would draw the guards' attention, but it was also really endearing and gratifying. 

Zuko couldn’t take him in very far at this angle, but Sokka didn’t seem to mind. His eyes were squeezed shut and Zuko felt him shift to he put a hand over his mouth. Good; Zuko didn't want to ask.

Zuko made up for it by using his other hand and sucking as hard as he could. He enjoyed the stretch of his lips, the feel of Sokka's hand in his hair, not pushing, just petting. He established a rhythm of short, bobbing movements that made his shoulders ache and Sokka curl forward and his abdomen tense. The pitch of Sokka's moans jumped higher when he sucked harder, moving faster up and down the part of of Sokka's cock he could fit in his mouth.

A bead of sweat trickled down his back. He lost his rhythm, inhaling shakily when Sokka reached between his legs. A shudder passed from him to Sokka when Sokka cupped him over the fabric. Pleasure intermingled with frustration; knowing he couldn't come made him want to grind against Sokka's warm hand even more.

Sokka's warning came a second too late. Zuko didn't do anything but try to breathe through his nose as Sokka's come hit his soft palate and hand tightened on his cock. A trickle of come trailed down his chin.

"Oh shit, sorry," he said as Zuko spat it into the pond.

"It's fine," Zuko said. He wished that his cock would soften already. The ache was already becoming unpleasant. He flung himself against the tree, annoyed at life's unfairness.

Sokka looked down. 

"This is so dumb," he said. "I mean, how would they be able to tell, anyway?"

Zuko nodded without opening his eyes. Sokka lifted his tunic and began to stroke him again.

"The Fire Sages would probably say they could see my guilty conscience or something," he complained. 

Sokka squeezed him, grinning as he bit his lip. "I'd prefer that over a 'your ancestors could see you and they said you lied' guilt trip, that one's popular in the Water Tribe."

"Unh, stop, don't make me think that," Zuko whined, feeling a weird mix of turned on and grossed out

"Come on, just a little more," he said, and it took all of Zuko's willpower to close his hand over Sokka's, stilling him.

"I-I can't," he said.

"You'll come if I do just a little more?" Sokka asked. 

"Yeah, 'm really close," Zuko admitted. Sokka's other arm was suddenly around him and his soft noise of sympathy felt so intimate. Zuko let his head loll on his shoulder.

"Okay," Sokka said. He tightened his arm around Zuko, and he relaxed the best he could, but his body was still alert with lust.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't found a cheap English translation, but what little I read about Tung-Hsuan's Art of the Bedchamber was enough to inspire this fic.
> 
> Concrit is welcome, ship hate is not. No pairing requests, please; this fic is fully planned out.


End file.
